Process of extracting cacao-butter.



. UNITED STATES ATENT Fries.

ADOLF CHRISTIAN MAX RIECK, OF HAMBURG, GERMANY.

PROCESS OF EXTRACTING CACAO-BUTTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 636,849, dated November 14, 1899.

Application filed Se tember 1 9, 1 8 9 8.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ADOLF CHRISTIAN MAX RIEOK, a subject of the German Emperor, and a resident of Hamburg, in the German Empire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in and Relating to the Manufacture of Cacao-Butter, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of cacao-butter; and the object of the said improvements is to produce a process by which in a rational manner a more pure cacao-butter, as well as a better unoiled cacao residue, are obtained.-

In the process hitherto in use for obtaining cacao-butter the cacao-beans were roasted and hulled and then the nuts ground into a fine oily cacao-paste, a considerable heat (104 to 140 Fahrenheit) being applied during this grinding operation. The thus-obtained viscid cacao-paste was filled in slightly-heated filterpresses and the oil or fat expelled by pressing. From this process commonly in use results, however,- only a small produce of cacaobutter,- and besides this the said process is expensive and the handling of the oily paste rather loathsome. A further great inconvenience of this process consists in that by the pressing operation,- especially when applying a higher pressure, a great number of brown cacao particles of the finely-powdered cacao-nuts are also expelled, which cacao particles intermingle with the cacao-oil'or cacaobutter and soil thereby the latter; In order to remove the said brown cacao particles, the cacao-butter must therefore be filtered several times, if necessary.

The above-stated inconveniences are obviated by the new process forming the subjectmatter of the present invention and which process permits so great a produce of cacao- Serial No. 691,363. (No specimens.)

butter that only about ten per cent. of the oil remains in the cacao residues, while when working according to the well-known method the remaining oil or butter amounts to thirty to thirty-five per cent.

The mode of practicing my invention is as follows: The cacao-beans are first roasted and hulled in the usual manner and then ground to form a coarse granular mass, the grains being preferably about the size of rice-grains, which'may be effected in any suitable grinding-mill, after which the finer particles re sulting from the operation of grinding are re moved by screening, and the granular material so obtained is finally subjected to pressure in a filter-press, as usual. As there is no finely-reduced cacao-paste to be treated in the filter-presses, there is also no possibility that fine brown cacao particles may be expelled together with the cacao oil or butter even if a very high pressure is applied. In consequence of this fact higher pressure can be applied in the filter-presses, wherefrom results a greater output of cacao-butter,- so that the cacao residues contain only eight to fifteen per cent; of oil. The cacao residues may be powdered and subjected to further treatment in well-known manner.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In the manufacture of cacao-butter, the improvement which consists in granulating the previously roasted and hulled cacao-beans, removing from the granulated material the finer particles, and then subjecting said material to pressure and filtration.

ADOLF CHRISTIAN MAX RIEOK.

Witnesses:

FRANZ REINOKE, MAX KAEMPFF. 

